BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan—For the first time in this Central Asian country, impoverished Kyrgyz families with mentally ill or disabled loved ones have an alternative to locking away siblings and parents in decrepit government asylums.
Habitat for Humanity Kyrgyzstan and the Open Society Institute's Mental Health Initiative have entered into an unprecedented partnership to provide decent housing and support services to help Kyrgyz families stay together as they face the challenges of mental disabilities.
Six families from Kyrgyzstan’s capital, Bishkek, will participate in the project's first year. Four of these families have members with mental health problems; the other two families have members with intellectual disabilities. For years, these families, among the poorest of Kyrgyzstan's poor, have lived in deplorable conditions—in homes with no working plumbing, with doors hanging from broken hinges, and toilets that are little more than cracked ceramic bowls covering holes in a floor.
By the end of October, Habitat for Humanity, which has worked for decades building affordable housing in partnership with families in need, will renovate the four existing apartments and two houses the selected families have inhabited. Family & Society, a Kyrgyz non-governmental organization which partners with the Mental Health Initiative, will provide the families continuous at-home medical, sociological, and psychological support.
This project is the first to capitalize on the obvious synergies between Habitat for Humanity's housing mission and MHI's efforts to support alternatives to institutionalization for individuals with mental disabilities. The project is designed to demonstrate to Kyrgyz community leaders and policy makers that alternatives to institutionalizing people with mental disabilities are cost efficient, more humane, and enrich communities by including all of their members in social life.
“With this project, Habitat is helping one more deprived layer of society gain access to decent housing,” said Loucine Hayes, Habitat's program development manager in Kyrgyzstan.
Judith Klein, program director of the Budapest-based MHI, said: “This partnership demonstrates that there are simple, cost-effective ways to provide support for people with mental disabilities in their own homes and with their own families. There are alternatives to unnecessary segregation in long-stay institutions, where residents experience dependence, isolation, and exclusion.”
Former Soviet countries like Kyrgyzstan are only now developing alternatives to institutions to support people with mental disabilities as well as their families. Many people with disabilities, and even their loved ones, face challenges in obtaining and keeping paid work because of the stigma associated with mental disabilities and because of the additional costs and other burdens connected with caring for their family members. Presently, Kyrgyz families coping with disabled or mentally ill members lack access to schools, employment, and government support to help cover living costs, driving them deeper into poverty.
Habitat for Humanity is a nondenominational Christian charity dedicated to eliminating poverty housing. It has built more than 200,000 houses; more than one million people are living in Habitat homes they helped build and own through low-cost, no-profit mortgages. We have positively affected lives in nearly 100 countries around the globe.
The Open Society Mental Health Initiative (MHI) aims to ensure that people with mental disabilities (mental health problems and/or intellectual disabilities) are able to live in the community and to participate in society with full respect for their human rights. MHI is a program of the Open Society Institute and works in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union (CEE/FSU).
Contact Information
Jennifer Lindsey, jlindsey@habitat.org, +1(301) 439-0099
Dominique Scharer, dscharer@habitat.org, +36(1) 411-2170
Indira Aseyin, npdm@habitat.elcat.kg, +996(312) 541-599